Doctors label cancer by stages. Stages show how much cancer is in your body, how far it has spread and how quickly it may grow.  

Stages help us understand how serious your cancer is so your Knight Cancer Institute team can plan the best treatment.

What is cancer staging?

With pancreatic cancer, stages show:

• Where the cancer is in your pancreas
• Whether it has spread outside the pancreas
• If it has spread to the lymph nodes or blood
• If it has spread to other organs like the liver

Doctors determine your pancreatic cancer stage using:

• Physical exam
• Blood tests that detect proteins made by pancreatic cancer cells
• Biopsies, in which a tissue sample is removed and looked at in a lab 
• Imaging tests, which can include ultrasound or CT or MRI scans
• Endoscopic ultrasound, a test in which a doctor threads a thin tube with a camera through the mouth to look at the pancreas

Surgical staging

Scans usually clearly show how much cancer there is and how much it has spread. If not, surgeons might use small cuts and tiny cameras to take a look.

Understanding pancreatic cancer stages

The lower the stage, the less the cancer has spread. For example:

• A stage 0 cancer is the earliest stage. It hasn’t spread outside the lining of the pancreas.
• A stage IV, or 4, is advanced pancreatic cancer. It has spread to distant lymph nodes and other organs like the liver or lungs.

Staging cancer is complicated. You can ask your doctor to explain it in ways that you understand.  The Knight Cancer Institute is devoted to giving you the longest and best-quality of life possible.

Cancer is in the lining of the pancreas.

Cancer is in the pancreas.

• Stage IA: The tumor is 2 centimeters or smaller.
• Stage IB: The tumor is between 2 and 4 centimeters.

Stage IIA: The tumor is in the pancreas and bigger than 4 centimeters.

Stage IIB: The tumor ranges from smaller than 2 centimeters to larger than 4 centimeters. Cancer has spread to one to three nearby lymph nodes.

One of these:

• The tumor ranges from smaller than 2 centimeters to larger than 4 centimeters. Cancer has spread to four or more nearby lymph nodes.
• The cancer involves nearby major blood vessels and any number of lymph nodes.

The tumor is any size. Cancer has spread to distant parts of the body.